Checking games

Answer

A frequent topic in the current chess coverage is the so-called cheating, i.e. the unauthorized use of chess programs during the running game.

ChessBase offers a function to measure tactical accuracy and as an indication of possible computer help the centipede analysis has become common. This retrospective analysis option for games played is implemented in ChessBase and is frequently used by many online players for retrospective analysis of their games.

Mark within the game list of a database those games which should be checked with the centipawn analysis.

The centipawn analysis is determined as follows: if a player makes a move that is worse than the best engine move from an engine's point of view, he suffers a centipede loss with this move. This is the distance of the played move to the best engine move measured in centipawns, because every engine evaluation is represented in pawn units.

Averaging this loss over the entire game, i.e. calculating the average, gives a measure of the tactical precision of the moves. If the best engine move is always played, the centipede loss for a game is zero.

Even though the centipawn analysis vary greatly for individual games, they are a useful measure of playing strength/precision for several games. Blitz games have correspondingly higher values for players of all classes.

Select the games to be checked in a database (Ctrl-A for all games). Then in the tab Analysis the call Centipede Analysis. A search time of zero (=400ms) to three seconds is completely sufficient in connection with a current fast computer.

When the analysis is complete, the result is written to a text file in the database directory.

Strong grandmasters achieve between 15 and 25 in long games, while club players achieve between 30 and 60. However, the values can fluctuate greatly. Even club players sometimes achieve low values of around 10 on the board.

A low value in a single game is not proof of cheating. Especially in quiet draw games the values tend to be lower.

Note: meaningful values result only from higher numbers of games. The results of the centipawn analysis are written into the notation as well as into a separate text file. The text file is located in the directory where the database is stored.

 

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Created on
19.09.2023
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